Thursday, 6 November 2014

Day 6: The Right Clothes

Welcome to our 25 day Advent study and Advent Calendar which we are
preparing through November to be able to use in December. Each day has
a Bible Study related to Advent, a worship video, a passage telling the
Christmas Story and a Bible verse to ise on your Advent Calendar. You
can download the PDF with today's study and verses here.

Advent Study“Clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.” Romans 13:14

Some might read this Bible passage and think that all we have to do to be a Christian is to put on Christ just like we would a fancy set of clothing. Some would say, “As long as we look like Christ in some superficial way, then we don’t have to be like Christ in any meaningful way.” This is exactly what the Pharisees were trying to do. They not only wore their WWJD (What Would Jesus Do?) bracelets on their arms, but on their foreheads as well. It wasn’t enough.

We all have seen ill-mannered people dressed in fine clothes. They may look respectable, but it is only a matter of time before they show what they’re really like on the inside. Jesus spoke of such people (and of all of us) when He said, “Out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander”(Matthew 15:19).

Our problem is not that we aren’t dressed properly, but that we have a diseased heart. The trouble with a bad heart is not only that dressing it up doesn’t heal it, but that we can’t transplant a healthy heart ourselves. Fortunately Jesus is the Great Physician who creates in us a new heart. Only through Christ’s power can we forget the desires of our sinful heart and find ourselves clothed in Him.

Prayer
Dear Lord Jesus, thank you for giving me a new heart that is full of joy. May I delight in the peace that comes through the forgiveness of my sins. Amen.

Ponder
The picture of the “right clothes” is given to us in Ephesians 6:13-18, putting on the armor of God. What are you comfortable wearing and what is difficult for you to wear?

Worship Video

Christmas StoryLuke 1:11-17
Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense.
When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John. He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born. He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”

Bible VerseLuke 1:13
But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John.